The trial of Jesse H. Wyatt, charged with the shooting of Stephen S. Holt, prominent lawyer of this city on June 1, came up Thursday afternoon in the Wake Superior Court. The selection of the jury ended the first day of the case. A panel of 50 men was summoned from Durham County. It took 39 to get the 12 who are hearing the evidence. The following jury was selected:
R.E. Hurst, I.F. Davis, Pink H. Royster, D.R. Brule, James E. Smith, F.E. Page, Sycho Pickett, E.L. Husketh, Lonnie C. Garrett, James A. Flinton, A.J. Tilley, J.R. Rich. Testimony began Friday. Late Friday afternoon Wyatt took the stand in his own behalf and told the story of the first 44 years of his life. The News and Observer reported his evidence in part as follows:
“The story of his life that brought him to the fateful June day when he hurried away with Chief of Police J. Winder Bryan to watch a motorcycle test on the Garner road out form Raleigh with an engagement an hour later to go fishing with his wife. His story of the incident that prevented the meeting of either engagement comes today.
State’s Strong Case
“Five eye witnesses for the State testified yesterday that Jesse H. Wyatt shot directly at the automobile in which Stephen S. Holt was riding. Two doctors testified that an autopsy disclosed a flattened bullet beneath the tongue of the dead man that had plowed its way thru the head from the back of the neck, making a clean round hole and severing the spinal column and producing instant death.
“Solicitor W.F. Evans presented to the court the section of the back curtain of the automobile in which Holt was riding, which shows the hole made by the bullet that was not then flattened. The State put in evidence the collar of the dead man that shows a sawed trench that was made by the bullet as it sank into the neck of the deceased.
“The State put on 16 witnesses from all walks of life from Johnston County to testify to the good character of the eight occupants of the two cars which carried the party with which Holt was riding when the bullet overtook him as he was going back to his home in Smithfield along the public highway of Wake County.
Story of Fateful Shooting
“With no interruptions from the battery of lawyers defending Wyatt, Col. Ed S. Abell took the witnesses for the State over the events of the fateful June first. There was Dock Woodward, driver of the car in which Holt was riding; Will Wright and Adam Woodward, who sat by his side when his head fell back and he breathed his last, and there was Joe Woodward, who was seated in front with Dock, and all telling practically the same story with variations only in the details.
“Behind the death car came another car, which was driven by Lonnie Lynch, and in which were Monroe Woodward, Solomon Daughtery and Robert Webb. Each one of the occupants testified that they saw coming toward their car a man who later they found was Jesse H. Wyatt and that he turned and shot directly at the automobile in front of them. Their testimony was corroborated by C.C. Wren of Davidson County, who happened to be passing at the time. Their testimony as to the direct shooting at the automobile was emphasized by their standing up and showing with their right hand how it happened.
“James H. Pou, senior member of counsel for the defense, did the cross-examining, but with but one or two exceptions he made no attempt to impeach the damaging testimony of the witnesses for the State.
Wyatt’s Good Character
“With the consent of the State, the defense opened its case by introducing 79 character witnesses including every class and prominent citizen that Raleigh and Wake County affords, from State officials of every station except Governor to township constable. Jointly and severally, without reservation and without qualification, the witnesses gave Jesse H. Wyatt and Chief of Police J. Winter Bryan a good character.
“The defense threw in its character witnesses in a veritable avalanche not hesitating to put on the stand Deputy Sheriff Bud Stell, the officer in charge of the Durham County jury; Miss Frances Dement, the court stenographer, and Deputy Clerk Lloyd Tilley, who impaneled the jury and swore in all the witnesses except himself.
It was 3 o’clock Friday afternoon when the State rested, and for an hour and a half, the defense put on character witnesses. There was Mrs. T.W. Bickett, the wife of a former governor of the state; State Treasurer Benjamin R Lacy; State Auditor Baxter Durham; Dr. T.W. O’Kelly, prominent Baptist minister; Mayor E.E. Culbreth; Register of Deeds William Henry Penney; Rev. S.J. Betts, Capt. N. Warren and Captain Woodall of the Raleigh Police Department, and three score and ten more of men and women put on the witness stand by the defense.
Wyatt Goes on Stand
“It was 5 o’clock when Jesse H. Wyatt was placed upon the witness stand by the defense. Looking across the table from him was his young wife by a second marriage and a half dozen of his children, the oldest a grown son and two of them beautiful young daughters. Of clean-cut appearance and rather wiry of frame, Wyatt after the day of ordeal looked weary, but he told a straight-forward story of his life the first 20 years of which was spent at Wilson with his parents.
Judge Horton led him through the years after he came to Wakefield in 1900, got married and settled down. It wasn’t long before he had impressed the people of that community with his worth—in 1902 he was made chief of police. A little while later he became township constable, and finally deputy sheriff, filling all these posts with credit until 1909 when he came to Raleigh to help Major J.J. Bernard to compute taxes and a little while later served his apprenticeship as patrolman and then became assistant to J.P. Stell, then chief of police in Raleigh and now chief field deputy in the office of the sheriff of Wake County and incidentally the officer in charge of the jury that is trying Wyatt. Wyatt quit the police force in 1913 and went with the firm of T.H. Briggs & Son hardware merchants in Raleigh, going back with the police department in 1918 and becoming finally in September of last year Chief of Detectives with 10 men under his command.
“Before calling witnesses for the State, Solicitor Evans announced yesterday that he would not ask for a verdict of first degree murder.
Story of Shooting
“Dock Woodward, driver of the car in which Holt was killed, was the first witness called. His testimony was corroborated in all substantial parts by the remaining members of the Johnston County party that came to Raleigh on June 1 to attend Federal Court. Lonnie Lynch, the driver of the second car in which part of the party came, had a case in Federal Court and that was the occasion of the others coming including Lawyer Holt, who appeared for him.
“In the car driven by Dock Woodward was his brother, Adam Woodward, a cousin, Joe Woodward, Mr. Holt and Will Wright. In the other car was Monroe Woodward, father-in-law of Adam and Dock Woodward, and Robert Well band Solomon Daughtery, the latter two witnesses for Lynch.
“The party left Smithfield early in the morning and upon finding that the case would not be called up in the afternoon got dinner at a café and started back home. It was brought out that subsequently the case against Lynch was thrown out of court.
“According to the testimony of Dock Woodard, who was corroborated by their members of the party, he left Raleigh with his car first but waited at the foot of Smithfield street, and when Lynch came up found that the latter would stop at Walnut Creek, a mile or so away, and wait for them as it was explained by the witnesses that Will Wright, who was in the car with Holt and the others, was not feeling well that day and wished to stop at Walnut Creek to answer a call of nature.
Reason for Stopping
“The members of the party with Holt declared without exception that the cars were stopped at that point to accommodate Wright and that Joe Woodard went with him into the woods. The witnesses said the cars stopped about 10 minutes and that Dock Woodard pulled out with his automobile, going in front of Lynch, and that it had gone but a short distance with Jesse Wyatt and Chief of Police J. winder Bryan walking toward them, the car from which they had alighted being some distance away. Occupants of the first car said that neither of the officers both of whom were dressed in plain clothes, spoke to them and that the first they knew anything unusual had happened was when Holt tell back.
Wyatt Shoots Direct
“Lonnie Lynch, Robert Webb, Solomon Daughtery and Monrow Woodard, who were riding in the second car, each swore that they saw Wyatt shoot directly at the automobile in from of them, and each of the witnesses stood before the Durham County jury and held out their arm straight to indicate that the bullet was fired straight toward the car ahead of them. “The testimony of these witnesses was corroborated by C.C. Wren, a traveling man from Davidson County, who said he was driving to Raleigh from Goldsboro and that as he reached the point described by the other witnesses he saw a man standing with outstretched arm and heard a shot as he rode by. With Wren was E.C. Ellis, but the latter was asleep and did not recall the shooting. The State put on Commissioner of Pardons Hoyle Sink to prove the good character of Mr. Wren.
Made Search for Liquor
“Following the shooting of Holt, Dock Woodard and the other members of the party with Holt said that Bryan and Wyatt sent back to the rear car to search it for liquor and that Wyatt then began making a search in the grass by the side of the road.
Dock Woodard ran back shouting, “Come on up here, you’ve killed a man.” Chief of Police winder Bryan suggested that Holt be taken to the hospital. The wounded man was placed in Wyatt’s car and carried to Rex hospital, but he died in route.
“All of the witnesses in the party with Holt testified that there was no liquor in either automobile, that they had no liquor on the day in question.
Spinal Cord Broken
“Judge F.H. Brooks was placed on the stand for the purpose of identifying the bullet and the collar that was introduced in evidence both having been kept by him since he got them from the undertaking establishment of J.D. Underwood, Smithfield undertaker, told of the autopsy, by Dr. W.J.B. Orr of Smithfield, and Dr. Paul Neal of Raleigh, which revealed a bullet beneath the tongue of the dead man. “Both Drs. Orr and Neal said that the spinal cord was broken by the bullet, which produced almost instant death and both agreed that it was a round hole made by the bullet and that it went straight through the head.
The Character Witnesses
“Witnesses testifying to the good character of the members of the party with the deceased man were: Archie Edwards, Henry Massey, Charlie Edwards, Wyatt Hinton, Howard Oliver, Adalia Holt, Fate Benton, W.P. Sugg, George P. Massey, N.G. Wiggs, J. Rufus Creech, Rev. Elijah F. Pearce, D.D. Braswell, Charlie Gurley, J.H. Joyner, W.F. Grimes and C.S. Peele. “Wyatt in his testimony Saturday said that he saw a man bring up out of a ditch a half gallon jar that he took to be liquor, and that when the two parked cars at Walnut Creek on the Garner road started away quickly, he fired as a signal to Officer John Leathers, who had gone ahead of him on a motorcycle.
“I did not fire at the automobile and if the bullet had gone straight, it would have gone out in the field,” Wyatt explained further in denial of the testimony of witnesses for the State that he had fired directly at the automobile in which Holt was riding. Wyatt testified that he fired at the pavement 10 or 15 feet ahead of him, and that the automobile was some 20 yards away from him.
Following the testimony of Wyatt, Chief of Police J. Winder Bryan was put on the stand to corroborate Wyatt’s version of the fatal shooting.
Recess was taken until Monday morning while Bryan was still on the witness stand, and the State did not cross examine him. The jury was ordered to be kept together over the week end.
From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1925. The last name Woodard was also spelled Woodward—I don’t know which is correct.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1925-11-17/ed-1/seq-1/
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